For several years, I taught introductory blackwork embroidery at the "Schole of
Needleworke" at the Renaissance
Pleasure Faire, and discovered that I much prefer designing
embroidery to actually working it. Between 1985 and 1990, I self-published
three booklets of hand-drawn embroidery designs for costume under the series title
Elizabethan Blackwork.
This archive contains the "best of" those booklets,
with much cleaner patterns, plus many new designs.

A Note on Authenticity: These patterns are inspired by historical needlework
of sixteenth and seventeenth century England, but they are all
original designs.

Machine embroidery: While I want to encourage handwork, I understand that many costumers are
more interested in clothing construction than embellishment. I'm delighted
to let you know that you can download digitized versions of several of my
patterns free from
Thredworks - check them out at
http://thredworks.com/blakwrk.htm and
http://thredworks.com/bw2001.htm. [Links updated.]

Costume

The Gallery

Reference

Using These Patterns:
These patterns may be downloaded and printed for personal or
educational use. Please credit this source on any copies you
distribute.

You may
use these patterns to embroider clothing, costumes, and accessories, and you are free to sell the items you make.
You may not sell the patterns themselves in hardcopy or in digitized form, and
you may not reprint or repost the patterns in any form without my express
permission. When in doubt, please email pkm@pobox.com.